Chinese judges get immersion in U.S. law at Tulane

A delegation of 30 senior judges from across China spent a week in New Orleans during the spring semester, being briefed by Tulane Law faculty across a variety of fields, meeting with federal and state judges, and hearing from a panel of Justice Department officials as part of the Distinguished Judicial Exchange Program organized by Tulane law professor Guiguo Wang.

David Meyer, dean of the law school, said hosting the delegation was “part of a broader expansion of Tulane Law School"s partnerships and outreach in China.”

Tulane has dual-degree partnerships with several Chinese universities and offers a four-week summer Institute of Chinese Law and Business Transactions that takes students to both Beijing and Shanghai.

Wang, a world-renowned scholar on international economic law who was recruited to join the Tulane faculty in 2014, initiated the U.S. visits as a key component of a judicial education program he founded while serving as dean of City University of Hong Kong.

This was the first time the program included instruction at Tulane. Topics included Louisiana law, family law, U.S. constitutional law, maritime law and environmental law.

“We hope this may be the first in a series of judicial education programs offered to judges from China and elsewhere,” Meyer said.

The visit culminated with Wang"s investiture as Eason-Weinmann Chair of International and Comparative Law at Tulane. The chair is made possible by a gift from Virginia Eason and former Ambassador John Giffen Weinmann that helps sustain Tulane"s Eason Weinmann Center for International and Comparative Law. Weinmann graduated from Tulane in 1950 and received his law degree from Tulane in 1952.

The United States trip was a capstone at the conclusion of the judges" doctoral studies at City University of Hong Kong.

Linda P. Campbell is Tulane Law School"s director of communications.